Background Humanitarian emergencies increase the risk of gender-based violence (GBV). We estimated the prevalence of GBV victimisation and perpetration among women and men in urban settings across Somalia, which has faced decades of war and natural disasters that have resulted in massive population displacements.

Methods A population-based survey was conducted in 14 urban areas across Somalia between December 2014 and November 2015.

Results A total of 2376 women and 2257 men participated in the survey. One in five men (22.2%, 95% CI 20.5 to 23.9) and one in seven (15.5%; 95% CI 14.1 to 17.0) women reported physical or sexual violence victimisation during childhood. Among women, 35.6% (95% CI 33.4 to 37.9) reported adult lifetime experiences of physical or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) and 16.5% (95% CI 15.1 to 18.1) reported adult lifetime experience of physical or sexual non-partner violence (NPV). Almost one-third of men (31.2%; 95% CI 29.4 to 33.1) reported victimisation as an adult, the majority of which was physical violence. Twenty-two per cent (21.7%; 95% CI 19.5 to 24.1) of men reported lifetime sexual or physical IPV perpetration and 8.1% (95% CI 7.1 to 9.3) reported lifetime sexual or physical NPV perpetration. Minority clan membership, displacement, exposure to parental violence and violence during childhood were common correlates of IPV and NPV victimisation and perpetration among women and men. Victimisation and perpetration were also strongly associated with recent depression and experiences of miscarriage or stillbirth.

Conclusion GBV is prevalent and spans all regions of Somalia. Programmes that support nurturing environments for children and provide health and psychosocial support for women and men are critical to prevent and respond to GBV.

Natural disasters are increasingly causing displacements globally, and such negative impacts of climate change are expected to increase exponentially. Women and girls in particular distinctly endure long-term or gradual harms while in displacement, such as heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, including exposure to sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, and forced or unwanted pregnancies. This article examines the Philippines as a case study to unveil the growing gendered security threats embodied by disaster-induced displacements. In the aftermath of the disaster caused by supertyphoon Haiyan, which struck in November 2013, the mantra of developing a “disaster-resilient nation” has gained currency among national and international actors in the country. Building on critical feminist political economy analysis, this article argues that the Haiyan postdisaster relief and reconstruction efforts constitute gendered processes that intimately rely on and mobilize women’s unremunerated social reproductive labor, particularly through their role as primary caregivers. Data for this research is drawn from twenty-six interviews with key informants and from secondary sources such as official reports of governmental, nongovernmental, and international humanitarian organizations. The findings underscore the importance of deploying a feminist lens to critique the material and discursive power of “resilience” through which norms of female altruism are harnessed at household and community levels while postdisaster responsibilities are increasingly diverted away from the state. In so doing, resilience discourses may serve to reinforce the structural roots of gendered vulnerability, including political, cultural, and economic barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services and supplies—thereby undermining bodily autonomy.

Women experience a host of negative consequences during and after a natural disaster. A variety of feminist theories have been used to explore this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to posit the need for an ecofeminist perspective on analyzing women’s vulnerabilities post- natural disaster. The authors will discuss the history and branches of ecofeminism, highlighting their utility in exploring the intersection of race, class, and gender in the aftermath of disaster. An ecofeminist analysis of Sri Lankan women’s vulnerability in the wake of the 2004 tsunami will be used to illustrate the utility of the theory. Implications of using ecofeminism in natural disaster research will be discussed.

Naoki Kambe explores the masculinist rhetoric of Japanese male intellectuals’ reactions to the 2011 earthquake. Through an analysis of several responses by Japanese male intellectuals and writers, Kambe explores how, in times of disaster, these intellectuals and writers express the cultural and masculine ideals of akirame, or resignation—which is linked to mujō, or the impermanence of nature—and of nostalgia for the remote past. In doing so, Kambe makes observations about the connections between masculinity and nation in the Japanese context. (Summary from Environment & Society Portal)

The rate of suicide amongst Australia’s rural men is significantly higher than rural women, urban men or urban women. There are many explanations for this phenomenon including higher levels of social isolation, lower socio-economic circumstances and ready access to firearms. Another factor is the challenge of climate transformation for farmers. In recent times rural areas of Australia have been subject to intense climate change events including a significant drought that has lingered on for over a decade. Climate variability together with lower socio-economic conditions and reduced farm production has combined to produce insidious impacts on the health of rural men. This paper draws on research conducted over several years with rural men working on farms to argue that attention to the health and well-being of rural men requires an understanding not only of these factors but also of the cultural context, inequitable gender relations and a dominant form of masculine hegemony that lauds stoicism in the face of adversity. A failure to address these factors will limit the success of health and welfare programs for rural men.

Though much research has been devoted to a range of socioeconomic and political consequences of natural disasters, little is known about the possible gendered effects of disasters beyond the well-documented immediate effects on women’s physical well-being. This paper explores the extent to which natural disasters affect women’s economic and political rights in disaster-hit countries. We postulate that natural disasters are likely to contribute to the rise of systematic gendered discrimination by impairing state capacity for rights protection as well as instigating economic and political instability conducive to women’s rights violations. To substantiate the theoretical claims, we combine data on women’s economic and political rights with data on nine different natural disaster events—droughts, earthquakes, epidemics, extreme temperatures, floods, slides, volcanic eruptions, windstorms, and wildfires. Results from the data analysis for the years 1990–2011 suggest that natural disasters have a detrimental effect on the level of respect for both women’s economic and political rights. One major policy implication of our findings is that disasters could be detrimental to women’s status beyond the immediate effects on their personal livelihoods, and thus, policymakers, relief organizations, and donors should develop strategies to prevent gendered discrimination in the economy and political sphere in the affected countries.

"Part I of this Article seeks to explore the particular vulnerabilities experienced by women in the context of humanitarian emergencies. Drawing on Fineman's theoretical framework describing the inevitability of vulnerability, I set out the way in which a shift in thinking about inevitable dependencies in the international context of humanitarian emergencies might realign our understanding of and response to gendered vulnerabilities. Part II identifies the structural limitations and biases inherent in prevailing humanitarian crisis responses and maps them onto the masculinities inherent in the standard operating procedures employed by international organizations and the cadre of experts that typically offer solutions to the society in crisis. Part III outlines the importance of realizing security in the context of humanitarian crisis and articulates a vision of gendered security that may be capable of superseding the inherent limitations of current constructions. The conclusion reflects on the limits of current international legal obligations in addressing women's harms and needs in the context of humanitarian crises" (Ni Aoláin 2011, 3-4).

This research examined gender perspectives of the implications of the severe 2012 flood on household food security in rural Anambra state, Nigeria. Two hundred and forty flood-affected migrant households, made up of 120 maleheaded households (MHHs) and 120 female-headed households (FHHs) in four rural local government areas (LGAs) were interviewed using a questionnaire. In addition, 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in the LGAs. Data analysis was by descriptive statistics, use of a food security index, and binary logistic regression. Before the flood, 89% of FHHs and 84% of MHHs reported they had been food secure, but after the flood only 34% of MHHs and 22% of FHHs remained food secure. The regression results identified higher incomes, marital status, and larger household sizes as significant predictors of food security for both MHHs and FHHs after the flood. Engagement in other occupations apart from farming and severity of damage from the flood prior to migration were the most important factors that predicted the food security status of MHHs after the flood, while an increase in the age of household head and higher levels of education were significant predictors of food security among FHHs after the flood. These results show that the diversification of income away from a reliance on agriculture, early warning systems for disasters, and improvement in the educational status of women could help households to remain food secure after future floods in Nigeria.

This article is not intended to be alarmist but its message is urgent. Its observations are fairly straightforward – it examines how climate change will impact on water security1, from both the supply and the demand side and how the African continent is especially vulnerable. Its core premise is that one important factor is to ensure that women have the necessary information, tools and resources to plan and take decisions around water security as it pertains to current and future needs. The paper’s focus is the African continent, with examples drawn from other developing countries. Its recommendations are extracted from workshop experiences in the field.

The Sahel belt of West Africa is high vulnerability to poverty and hunger, especially during periods of drought and other climatic adversities. This paper analyzed the impacts of gender role in agriculture and climate change exposure on monthly food shortages. The data were collected by the the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) from 281 farmers from Burkina Faso and Mali using multi-stage sampling procedures. Descriptive statistics, Poisson regression and Negative Binomial regression were used for data analysis. The results show that average food cropland owned were 9.0227 and 2.8266 hectares in Mali and Burkina Faso respectively while 58.87 percent and 24.29 percent of the farmers indicated that men did most of the works in raw food production. Also, 24.11 percent and 43.57 percent of the households noticed more erratic rainfall in Mali and Burkina Faso, respectively, while 16.31 percent and 36.43 percent reported less overall rainfall. The regression results showed that owned grazing land, more frequent flood, reduction in ground water level, men dominances in cash crop production, fruit production and vegetable production significantly increased the log of months with shortage due to cash (p<0.10), while community grazing land, more overall rainfall, household size, business cash income, men dominances in fodder and large livestock production significantly reduced it (p<0.10). It was concluded that recognition of the contributions of women to food production in the Sahel can facilitate a process for understanding and devising livelihood strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.